Canada's latest threat in an already long line of hostilities: trade war with the EU

(Found this on Google but no attribution. Looks like Montreal Simon's work, though.)

Harper has served notice on seniors, potheads, the youth, internet users, the environment, scientists and just about every other group not profitable to his party. Now, he's threatened to go to war with the EU over nomenclature.

Canada has threatened a trade war with European Union over the bloc's plan to label oil from Alberta's vast tar sands as highly polluting, the Guardian can reveal, before a key vote in Brussels on 23 February. 

"Canada will not hesitate to defend its interests, including at the World Trade Organisation," state letters sent to European commissioners by Canada's ambassador to the EU and its oil minister, released under freedom of information laws. 

The move is a significant escalation of the row over the EU's plans, which Canada fears would set a global precedent and derail its ability to exploit its tar sands, which are the biggest fossil fuel reserve in the world after Saudi Arabia. Environmental groups argue that exploitation of the tar sands, also called oil sands, is catastrophic for the global climate, as well as causing serious air and water pollution in Alberta.

How important are the tar sands to Stephen Harper's aspirations and identity? I'd say right up there with Israel and the war on pleasure. This time it is international silliness that will trump Harper's hand. Adding the EU to the UN as the latest phony villain cannot be good for Canada's reputation and credibility. Controlling the message with the world's press will not be as easy as manipulating the Globe & Mail editorial board or the staffs of the Post and Sun medias.

Faux outrage and striking out at any suspected enemy is the sign of the new but surely dated Canada - petty, vain and paranoid. Vacillating between unctuous and overreaching, we are fast becoming the Eddie Haskell of the world. It didn't work for Eddie the first time. I won't work now.